IN WINTRY light, sodden Oxfordshire fields flash by the train window, dampening Bagehot's spirits. Seated on the cramped and stained seat opposite, David Cameron meanwhile exudes his characteristic chipperness. Beaming at the lady who offers him coffee, nodding languidly at the red briefcase containing the afternoon's business, the Conservative prime minister's calm and officer-like good humour is evident in everything he does. It is his greatest strength as a leader. In all the mini-crises that have punctuated his premiership, only the near-miss of Scotland's independence referendum is said to have unnerved him much.
He also has a new reason for cheer. Long-awaited and potentially perilous, the speech Mr Cameron delivered on immigration on November 28th went as well as he could have hoped. In the run-up he had dangled his legs over a precipice, by mulling curbs on European migration clearly incompatible with Britain's EU membership. In the event, he left one leg dangling, by proposing discriminatory new welfare rules for European immigrants, yet the overall impression was of moderation. “Look, we've got a fantastic, multiracial democracy based on opportunity and meritocracy, a really precious thing,” he says. “But you don't serve the principle of being an open economy by saying we're going to be so open we're going to ignore people's concerns.”